Something Wicked This Way Comes
by Lahdolphin
Summary: Marui, Yukimura and Kirihara just wanted a roommate who didn't make a mess in the bathroom and paid his rent on time. What they got was a warlock and his cat-turned-human. Supernatural-AU
1. Part I

**Part I**

The new guy shows up at six o'clock in the morning at the ass crack of dawn, the same time Kirihara gets home from work and Yukimura is making his coffee. Yukimura knocks on his door and Marui rolls out of bed to wander into the living room in his boxers. It's still an hour too early for pants of any form.

"Coffee?" Yukimura offers.

"Screw you, Mr. Sunshine," Marui mutters.

Yukimura laughs softly.

Kirihara is draped precariously across their broken sofa, his butt lost somewhere in that gap they've been meaning to shove a pillow into. Yukimura sips at his coffee and sits on the kitchen counter; Marui begins to wonder if the new guy has any chairs because all they have is the sofa and a stool with a broken leg. Marui shoves Kirihara's feet to the side and sits down.

The three of them have known each other for, well, ever. Growing up, Yukimura was the kid next door to Marui and Kirihara was the annoying brat from down the street that he used to babysit. Yukimura and his family would show up at the Marui residence for small holidays and Friday night pizza night, a tradition the two still carry on. Kirihara would follow Marui around and when Kirihara got too old to need a baby-sitter, Marui became his tutor.

As they got older and wanted to move out, it only seemed natural to get a place together. It worked for awhile. Yukimura got a job at a big-shot magazine after graduating from university, Marui worked at the bakery Jackal started up, and Kirihara got a late night shift at a fast food joint.

But Kirihara is still in university, and Jackal's place isn't doing as well as hoped, and Yukimura can only write so many stories a month, and they need money. So they set out on what Marui refers to as the Great Roommate Search, which led them to a freak who decided to move in at six o'clock in the fucking morning.

Marui's never met this new guy. Yukimura handled most of the process. They weren't asking for much rent, just enough so they can get their hot water back and maybe some food that isn't made in the microwave.

"When's this guy gonna get here?" Kirihara says. "I've got class in, like, three hours and I need to sleep."

"He texted me saying he would be here and would need help," Yukimura says.

"What's his name again?" Marui asks.

"Niou," Yukimura says.

There's a knock at the door and Yukimura goes to let their new roommate in. Marui has known Yukimura for twenty-two years now and still does not understand how the man can be so damn chipper in the morning. Kirihara shifts on the stained sofa, propping himself up to get a look at this guy.

"The fuck?" Kirihara says.

Marui agrees. The guy looks like a bit of a freak. He's got white hair and startling blue eyes, and he's wearing jeans with more stains than the couch and a long sleeve shirt. The only normal thing about the guy is his luggage—nope, wait, that's weird too.

His messenger bag has several buttons on it, like a recycle button and a few more with Harry Potter references, which is where the normal stops. The bag has a bunch of weird symbols on it that Marui doesn't recognize. Things like moons and circles, stars, and some weird curvy lines.

Niou follows Yukimura into the apartment, dragging a moving dolly with a large black chest and several boxes on it. The chest has the same weird symbols as his bag.

"That's Marui and that's Kirihara," Yukimura says.

"Yo," Niou says.

"Is this all you have?" Yukimura asks.

"I have a few more things in the hall," Niou says. "Where's my room?"

There are exactly six rooms in their apartment. There's the main room, which is an open room containing the kitchen and the living room, the four bedrooms and one bathroom. Niou's room is the smallest and the furtherest from the bathroom. There's a window that leads to the fire escape.

Niou sets his things next to the mattress on the floor—there is no frame—and shows them where the rest of his things are. There's four more boxes that feel like they're filled with rocks, or very heavy books, and another luggage bag.

"Takeout menus are in the Lucky Charms box next to the microwave—we do pizza every Friday," Yukimura says. "We put our work shifts on a calendar on the fridge. We take turns going grocery shopping. Did I miss anything?"

"Whoever picks up the mail puts it in the Fruit Loops box," Kirihara says.

"Anything you don't want eaten, put your name on," Marui says.

"Knock when going into the bathroom," Yukimura adds.

"Don't fuck a screamer," Kirihara says.

"That's all I can think of at the moment," Yukimura says, not commenting on Kirihara's addition. He reaches into his pocket and hands Niou a key. "This works on the front door. The individual doors lock, but the key got lost and the landlord hasn't gotten around to giving us a spare."

Yukimura is the first to leave since he has to catch a train to work. Kirihara follows seconds later to shower and sleep before his class at nine. Marui has work at eight and needs to leave around seven forty, and there's no way he's going to be able to go back to sleep with Niou banging around right next to his room. Marui clicks his tongue and wishes he had a piece of gum.

"You need any help?" Marui offers.

Niou looks around at the boxes and his bags, then says, "I think I'll be fine."

"I have an old bookcase I don't really use anyone if you want me to bring it over," Marui says. "That way you don't have to go out and get one."

"Alright."

Marui goes into his room, decides he needs to do laundry when he spots a pile of dirty clothes, and wiggles the empty bookcase out of the corner. It's got six shelves and is surprising light, most likely because it's a cheap piece of crap, but maybe Niou can get some use out of it. Marui grabs a piece of gum and slides the bookcase into Niou's room.

Niou is unpacking his many boxes of books, stacking them in some order. Marui squats next to the largest stack that's a mixture of paperback and hardback books. He sees _The Hobbit_, the Lord of the Ringstrilogy, every Harry Potter book, and some more that Marui doesn't recognize but assumes are fantasy based. Then he looks at the other stacks and Marui is reminded of his initial impression of Niou:

This guy's a freak.

He picks up an old book that looks like it's about to break at the spine called _Fungi and Herbs: Household Uses_. He exchanges it for an old tome with the name _Tarot Reading_ written in elegant gold. _Essential_ _Crystals and Stones_; _Mandrake Root Revisited_; _Astronomy for Beginners_. Marui picks up book after book, each more peculiar than the last.

He reaches for a large tome. He recognizes the symbol on the front from Niou's bag and chest. He reaches for it, but Niou's fingers wrap around his wrist and stop him. His hand is surprisingly warm.

"Don't touch that," Niou says. He releases Marui's hand and goes back to pulling out more books—_101 Uses for Animal Bones_; _Numerology in Nature_; _Casting Spells: Five Hundred and First Edition. _

Marui stops looking and tries to convince himself that he's suddenly lost the ability to read and all of these books are completely, one hundred percent normal.

They're not.

.

Marui works every day except Friday from eight to eight at Jackal's bakery. He decorates the pastries and places them in neat rows or stacks in the display cases, then works the register as people begin to come in at nine. Jackal spends the day running between the front of the shop where he helps Marui and the back where he bakes. On weekends, Urayama comes in and helps with the register.

It's not much—just a little one-story shop wedged between an ice-cream parlor and a bookstore, but it's Jackal's dream. Marui's known Jackal nearly as long as Yukimura and Kirihara. They met in high school and have been planning the bakery ever since. They got a small loan and practically built the place from the ground up. They have a small profit.

"Register checks out," Marui says as he comes into the office from the shop. He puts the cash box into the safe. "Wanna come over for dinner? Seiichi's bringing home Italian. Akaya's got a date so we're an odd man out."

"Sure," Jackal says. He finishes whipping down his work station and takes off his flour-covered apron. "I finally get to meet the new guy you've been talking about all week."

Marui groans. Every day, he seems to forget that they have a forth roommate. Niou is quiet and keeps to himself, something Marui appreciates when he has a roommate like Kirihara, who likes to have Chinese food runs and movie marathons at four in the morning. He hasn't heard any animal sacrifices or seen any billowing smoke coming out from under Niou's door like he had initially expected.

Marui tallies the books and takes inventory of the baking supplies while Jackal closes up the front shop. They leave at eight, even though the shop closed at seven. Marui nearly forgets his sketchbook of cake designs.

Jackal's pastries are small things, like cupcakes and cream-puffs, but occasionally he'll make a cake and Marui goes wild. He's always had a talent for art and cake design is the best because he gets to eat frosting and design at the same time.

Yukimura's still at work when they get to the apartment. Niou is standing in the kitchen, lazily stroking a tabby cat sitting on the counter as it drinks from a saucer of water. The cat has short brown fur and stops drinking to stare at Marui and Jackal like they're intruders. It hisses.

"Calm down," Niou says.

"I didn't know you had a cat," Marui says. The apartment allows pets, but Niou never mentioned anything about a cat before.

"I don't own him, but I am his master." The cat nips at Niou's fingers. "Bad choice of words," Niou admits. He strokes behind the cat's ears as it begins to drink again.

Marui gestures to Jackal. "This is Jackal. We work together. He's staying for the night."

"Hey," Jackal says.

"Yo."

"So what do you do for a living, Niou?" Jackal asks. Marui looks at Niou and wonders why he hadn't thought to ask that earlier. He's seen Niou's work hours on the calendar but never bothered to figure out where he went.

"I work in a tea shop," Niou says. "You two work at the Doubles Bakery, right? I've seen a lot of boxes with that name in the fridge."

"We own it," Jackal says.

"He owns it," Marui corrects. "I just work there."

The tabby jumps off the counter and scurries towards Niou's room. Niou sighs heavily, doesn't give Marui or Jackal a second glance, and goes to open his room. He disappears inside with the cat.

.

Marui knows things about his roommates that have no real meaning or importance. He knows that Yukimura takes his coffee with two cubes of sugar, Kirihara doesn't drink coffee, and Niou prefers loose leaf tea. Yukimura dresses business casual, Kirihara is lucky to change into clothes at all, and Niou wears long sleeve shirts all the time. Yukimura eats pepperoni pizza, Kirihara will eat anything, and Niou eats plain cheese.

He could go on and on—the type of music they listen to (Niou listens to white noise, if that counts), favorite movie genre (Niou likes fantasy), favorite weather (Niou seems like be in a slightly better mood when it rains). In just about a month, Marui thinks he knows everything there is to know about Niou Masaharu.

Kirihara comes back the day after a date looking very pleased. Marui is eating leftovers at the window in the living room and sketching the city view. Niou's tabby cat is sitting on the fire escape to the left, nibbling at a potted plant Niou put there. Marui figures it's catnip.

"Hello," Kirihara says with a shit-eating grin. "Guess how my night went."

"You got laid. Don't rub it in."

"Yes, yes I did."

"Guy or girl?"

"Girl."

"Hooker?"

"Shut up. That was one time and she didn't even ask me to pay her." Kirihara's grin won't go away. He sits next to Marui on the floor, looks out the window, then look at Marui's sketchbook. "That's good. Can I have it when you're done?"

"Sure," Marui mutters. Sketches aren't his best. His best medium is oil paint, but it's expensive. Cake is a close second. Sketching calms him and gives him something to do on his days off.

"There's this guy in my Intro class you'd get along with," Kirihara says. "I can give him your number. Maybe you two can hook up and do the horizontal hooky pokey."

"You are so annoying after you've had sex."

Kirihara laughs. "You could fuck Niou."

The idea isn't appalling. Behind the weird white hair and startlingly empty blue eyes, Niou isn't a bad looking guy. He's tall and alluring and his skin is pale enough to mark easily, something Marui likes very much. He's little lanky and a bit skinner than Marui's normal hook-ups, but everyone has their faults.

"No thanks," Marui says. He erases a tower he made too tall and begins to redraw it. "But give that guy my number, okay?"

"'kay," Kirihara says. "You think Niou's gay?"

"Dunno." Marui pauses his hand and frowns. He hasn't heard Niou bring anyone home and as far as he knows, Niou comes home every night after work. Kirihara throws out a more ideas—asexual, bisexual, and a few more—but Marui quickly looses interest in the topic.

.

Marui ponders the meaning of irony when the morning after his conversation with Kirihara about Niou's sexuality, he sees Niou standing in the kitchen with a man dressed in only a towel. Niou is pouring hot water into a mug from a kettle, dropping his loose leaf tea dispenser into the mug.

The strange man is in Niou's very close personal space but not touching him, just talking in a hushed tone. The man has neat brown hair and is wearing wire glasses. His skin is still pink from the shower. He stops talking and stares at Marui when he comes out of his bedroom in his pajamas.

"I thought you had work," the strange man says.

"Jackal's sick so the shop's closed for the day. Who are you?" Marui asks. The man does not move from Niou's close space, even as Niou begins to drink his morning cup of tea.

"A friend," Niou says, bored and practiced. His blue eyes met Marui's, offering no further explanation. If eyes are the windows to the soul, then Niou has no soul. "Hiroshi, this is Marui."

"Hello," the man says. "Please call me Yagyuu."

Marui nods, moves into the kitchen to take some pastries leftover from the bakery out of the fridge, then sits up on the counter. The man has not moved away from Niou, who is now leaning with his back to the counter, slowly sipping his tea.

"Are you two together?" Marui asks.

"No," Niou says.

"It's not a big deal if you are—"

"We're not," Niou says, firmer this time. He inhales deeply into his tea. Yagyuu is closer than before and Niou seems to calm slightly. Yagyuu does not seem to care that he is only in a towel and neither does Niou.

"Alright," Marui says. "So do you have any plans? You have off, right?"

"We're going shopping," Yagyuu says. "Niou needs to restock on some things and I found a new shop we want to see."

"Cool. Seiichi's making his mom's lasagna tonight. Yagyuu should stick around."

Marui tries to gauge their reaction, but can't because there isn't one, unless you count Niou's blue eyes flicking up from his mug. Marui notices that Niou's hand has crept around Yagyuu's body and seems to be sitting somewhere on Yagyuu's bare back. They both act like it's a natural, normal touch.

"Perhaps," Yagyuu says.

Niou pushes away from the counter and leaves to go to his room, taking his tea and Yagyuu with him. Yagyuu doesn't stay for dinner.

.

Things don't work out with Kirihara's friend. Marui comes home from his disaster of a date, rubbing at the soda that spilled all over his pants and trying not to cough up a lung. He's fairly certain he got lung cancer from kissing that guy. How many packs did he smoke a day to taste that nasty?

Marui collapses onto the sofa, hears a soft meow, and looks down at his feet. The tabby cat Niou owns is staring at him with human-like curiosity. Marui pats the sofa next to his leg, the cat jumps up, and he turns on the television. Yukimura joins him when he comes home from work.

"Good kitty," Yukimura coos, scratching the cat's back near its tail. The cat purrs happily and rolls towards Yukimura's thighs. "I think I like having an animal around."

"As long as I don't have to buy it food or clean up its shit," Marui says.

"Hmm. How'd your date go?"

"Disaster."

"That's a shame." Yukimura flips through the channels, eventually settling on a nature documentary. Over the sound of screeching orangutans, Marui hears Niou's voice from his room.

"Hiroshi?" Niou calls. He opens his door and stops when Marui and Yukimura turn to look at him. "Have you seen my cat?"

The tabby jumps off the sofa and runs into Niou's room. Niou shuts the door without another word. Marui frowns at the primates on the television.

"Something wrong?" Yukimura asks.

"He has a friend named Hiroshi," Marui says.

"He probably named the cat after his friend."

"Yeah. That makes sense."

.

Niou disappears. Not literally, but in a sense he does. He has no hours at the tea shop the entire week and no one has seen him leave his room to get anything to eat or drink. Kirihara and Marui sit and debate whether or not he's dead.

"Ten bucks says he is," Kirihara says.

"He isn't dead," Marui says.

"Then make the bet and go into his room."

Marui thinks it over. Kirihara has a challenging look in his eyes, the same he used to get when Marui would babysit him and he refused to brush his teeth. Marui recalls winning by tackling Kirihara and holding him down.

"Well?" Kirihara says.

Marui holds out his hand and Kirihara shakes.

Marui hasn't been inside of Niou's room since the first day he moved in when it was all empty walls and dusty floorboards. Marui knocks on the door, receives no response, then goes inside.

Niou's room smells faintly of lavender and sweet smoke. Gray puffs of smoke drift up from an intricate, bronze incense dispenser sitting on top of the chest with the weird shapes. Fresh air blows in from the open window where there are pots of herbs and small flowers: sage, thyme, aloe, and others. Dreamcatchers hang along the walls next to tapestries.

The bookcase Marui had given him is filled to the brim and surrounded by several more stacks of books. Strings of glowing lights give off a soft yellow light which is reflected off of crystals scattered throughout the room on every surface—amethyst chunks the size of his fist, small quartz clusters, blue ones that glow green, purple ones with yellow streaks, and dozens more that he cannot recognize.

Worst of all, there are the objects on the chest. Next to the incense dispenser is a wide bowl full of herbs like a mortar and pestle. There are colored jars of different shapes and sizes labeled mandrake root, snake skin, eye of newt, chicken feet, and pig blood. There's more jars behind the first row that he can't read.

Definitely weirder than he expected and he was expecting some really freaky shit.

The mattress is still on the floor, shoved near the window and sticking out into the middle of the room. Thin fabric is draped down from the ceiling, encircling the bed like a curtain or a giant blanket fort. Marui hazardous a guess that Niou's inside the curtains and parts the fabric, looking down at the mess of blankets and white hair. The tabby cat is curled between his legs.

Niou groans, turns, opens his eyes. For a moment, Marui swore he saw red instead of blue, but it must have been his imagination.

"What?" Niou grumbles. "I'm sleeping."

"You've been sleeping for a week?"

"Yes."

"That's not normal."

Niou closes his eyes slowly. "So?"

"Akaya thinks you're dead."

"I'm obviously not."

Niou covers his face with the sheets. Marui knows he should probably leave. He doesn't know Niou the way he knows Yukimura and Kirihara, and tugging the sheets off his body is probably crossing an arbitrary line but he does it anyways. Big mistake in retrospect.

Niou's arms are covered in the most complicated, beautiful tattoos Marui has ever seen. Black ruins spiral down his arms from his shoulders and tapper off at his wrists, saying things in a language that Marui cannot read. There are alchemic symbols between the rows of writing and other symbols Marui recognizes from his bag and chest.

Niou sits up slowly, his blue eyes staring vacantly at Marui. The cat stirs between his legs. His eyes flash red and this time, Marui can't write it off as his mind being creative.

"What do you want?" Niou asks.

"What the hell are you?" Marui asks. He steps back, trips over a stray tome, stares at the man on the mattress. "Are you some devil worshiper or something? I was debating calling the cops when I saw the jar labeled pig blood, but now I am seriously freaking the fuck out!"

"Why did you come in here?"

"Answer me!"

"Answer me first and maybe I'll answer you." The cat is hissing now, but it stops when Niou places a hand on its back. "Calm down, Hiroshi."

"And why the hell is your cat named the same thing as your friend?"

Niou blinks slowly and tilts his head to the side a fraction of an inch.

Marui panics and says, "I was just making sure you were alive! We haven't seen you in ages and Akaya thought you were dead and paid me to come see if you're okay or not."

Marui tries to stand, wants to run away because Niou is more than weird, he's terrifying in ways Marui cannot begin to explain, but he can't move. Niou gives him a level look and says:

"I'm a warlock."

.

Marui feels like he's Harry Potter when he finds out that magic is real. Niou does not explain much and Marui does not want to know more than he already does. He knows that warlocks exist—rather, magical creatures exist—and Niou is one of them. Marui honestly didn't hear half of what Niou said after "I'm a warlock," but he caught enough to know that he wants a new roommate ASAP.

But how can he tell Yukimura and Kirihara all of this? They won't believe him and he doubts Niou is going to have a coming out party. And Niou isn't a bad roommate when you ignore the jars of pig blood and chicken feet and the whole warlock thing. He pays his rent, keeps his things clean, and stays to himself. He's a heaven sent compared to what they could've been stuck with.

Only he's a fucking warlock.

A week ago, Marui never would have believed he'd have a thought quite like that.

And, for some reason, Marui believes him. He does not think Niou is out of his mind, insane or delusional. Marui has never believed in magic, but when Niou told him, he suddenly did. No questions asked. Magic is real.

Now that he knows, Marui begins to notice things he didn't before. Like how Niou smells faintly of lavender or smoke from the herbs and incense in his room. After some research, he identifies the symbols on his bag and chest; they're all Wiccan marks—triquetra, triple goddess, blessings, witch's knot, and others that boggle his mind.

Marui throws himself into his work and does not talk to Niou. Urayama comes into the bakery on Monday to help Marui and Jackal with the books after the shop is closed. Kirihara and he play Xbox for six hours on Wednesday because Kirihara doesn't have work. Yukimura and Marui work on the bills on Thursday, deciding electricity comes before hot water.

He's almost able to forget his conversation with Niou until he finds Niou and Yagyuu in the kitchen on Friday.

Yagyuu is fresh out of the shower but is dressed this time. Niou rubs absently at Yagyuu's hip as he reads a Tolkien novel over a cup of tea. Marui does not notice that Yagyuu is purring until that soft, warm sounding buzz stops along with Niou's hand.

"We need to talk," Niou says, not once looking up from his book. He turns the page and sips at his tea. "Is there anything you'd like to know? We'll answer to the best of our ability."

"Are you a witch too?" Marui blurts out. Yagyuu adjusts his glasses.

"No," Niou says. "Anything else?"

Marui has a million questions—is Niou going to sacrifice him, what did those ruins on his arm mean, how can witches exist in the twenty-first century—but nothing comes out of his mouth.

"I will not sacrifice you, the ruins mark me as a warlock, and there are many more things than witches in the twenty-first century," Niou says. "Also, I'm a telepath. Don't ask me to move things, that's telekinesis and it's a cheap trick. I'm not what you think of when you think of witches."

"If you're not what I think, then what are you?"

"Complicated," Niou says, "but peaceful. You don't need to worry about anything. I keep my business to myself. And with Hiroshi, I suppose."

"Why does your cat have the same name as Yagyuu anyways?" Marui asks because that has been bugging him for ages.

Yagyuu's pupils dilate then retract into slits and turn yellow-green. Marui watches in awe and horror as Yagyuu shrinks down to the size of a cat—the same tabby that's always with Niou. He jumps up onto the counter and rubs his head against Niou's hand. Niou pets him.

"Any more questions?"

"No. If you need me, I'm going back to my room to pass out."

.

Yukimura and Marui sit on the sofa while Kirihara sits on the floor next to the pizza boxes. Kirihara brought home some cheap beer to celebrate his raise a work and Yukimura's newest story which made the centerfold. They watch bad late night television and laugh obnoxiously loud at the bad jokes because they're borderline drunk by that point.

"How did you get away with that without her slapping you?" Marui laughs.

"I have no idea!" Kirihara says.

Yukimura rolls onto his side, laughing until no sound comes out.

Niou comes out of his room holding cat-Yagyuu, stroking his fur absentmindedly, and goes into the kitchen. He shifts Yagyuu into one arm and begins to open the cabinets in search of expired cereal or cheese balls that are about to expire.

"Niou, come here," Yukimura says. "You have to hear what Akaya said on his date last week."

"I can't say it again without laughing," Kirihara says.

"Come on, it'll be fun," Yukimura goes on. "There's still some pizza."

Yagyuu rubs his head against Niou's stomach and Niou comes over to sit next to Marui. Yagyuu jumps to the ground and sips from a can of beer, which Marui finds strange but Kirihara and Yukimura find hilarious. Niou picks up a piece of pizza and sits with them for the rest of the night.

.

Jackal comes up with the idea to supply local, independent businesses with muffins to sell. The profits will be split and it will get their name out in the open. The café across the street agreed immediately, as did the bookstore next door. They close down the bakery an hour early on Monday and head towards the tea shop a few blocks down.

The shop is called Cauldron and is at the corner of the street. Marui walks past it every morning to get to the bakery but has never been inside. It seems to be a fairly standard shop with several tables inside and outside with a long counter for orders. As Marui and Jackal get closer to the counter and can see the objects behind the counter to be purchased, Marui realized it's not a normal tea shop.

There are boxes of bagged tea packets for sale, as well as bags of loose leaf tea and a variety of tea infusers. But there are jars labeled wolfsbane, mandrake root, juniper berries, alder, and other strange things that do not go into tea. Weirder yet are the crystals similar to the ones in Niou's room and small wooden chests with Wiccan carvings on them.

"Welcome to Cauldron," the man behind the counter says. The name tag on his apron reads Shiraishi. "How can I help you?"

"We're from Doubles Bakery," Jackal says, obviously not seeing what Marui is seeing. "I emailed the owner about selling some of our products here."

"Oh, yes, please wait a moment," Shiraishi says. He disappears into the back room and several minutes later, returns with a man in a sharp suit. The man comes around the counter, introducing himself as Atobe Keigo, the owner of Cauldron.

When Marui shakes his hand, he feels as though he's been dipped into ice water. Marui shivers and Atobe chuckles deeply.

"I apologize. I've been told I'm quite cold-blooded," Atobe says. Jackal laughs. "Now, in terms of what we discussed in our prior correspondence..."

Atobe and Jackal begin to talk business. They haggle terms and numbers, profit cuts and supply numbers. It doesn't take too long for them to settle on a morning delivery of two dozen muffins Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and a seventy-thirty profit cut with the bakery getting more.

Atobe shakes their hands once more and when Marui looks at his eyes, he swears he sees faint scales growing out like crows feet and his black pupils dilate to the size of plates. But when he looks again, Atobe's skin is smooth and flawless and his eyes are perfectly human.

"We'll be in touch," Atobe says, then turns and disappears into the back room.

"I'm going to need some help in the back making all of this stuff," Jackal says, thoroughly ecstatic. "I'm going to make some calls to the local culinary schools and see if they can suggest anyone. I'll see you later."

Jackal hurries out of the store, already on his phone, leaving Marui to himself. Marui turns to Shiraishi. He notices that on the name tag, next to his name is a triquetra, a symbol on Niou's bag and chest and arms.

"Does a man named Niou Masaharu work here?" Marui asks.

"Yes," Shiraishi says, "but he has the day off. He works tomorrow from nine to five."

Marui thanks Shiraishi for his time and leaves the store. It takes him a moment to comprehend that Jackal and he just entered a business deal with a magical shop. He doesn't even know why he's surprised anymore.

.

Marui is sitting by the window in the living room with his sketch book when Niou walks up to him, holding cat-Yagyuu in his arms. There's a cup of tea floating near his elbow and it should surprise Marui more than it does.

"I thought you said telekinesis was a cheap trick," Marui says.

"It is, but it has it's uses," Niou says. He sets cat-Yagyuu down and picks his cup of tea out of the air. "Stay away from Cauldron. It's a magical shop for magical beings."

"Shiraishi looked normal," Marui says.

"He's an alchemist," Niou says. "Atobe is a dragon, Miyuki does voo-doo, Yanagi is a seer, and Kikumaru is a familiar like Hiroshi."

"A familiar?"

"An animal that watches over witches and warlocks," Niou says with a bored expression. "Familiars have the ability to turn into humans. Most are cats or dogs, but some are bats or reptiles. It's a very close relationship bound by magical compatibility."

Marui thinks about how Yagyuu is always at Niou's hip in his human form and sleeping between his legs in his cat form. He wonders if Niou and Yagyuu have slept together.

"I told you before, we're not together," Niou snaps, annoyed. He sips at his tea and seems to calm. Marui assumes it's either some good camomile or has some magic in it; maybe both. "Promise you'll stay away from the store."

"Why should I do what you tell me to do?" Marui asks.

"Because Atobe will eat you if he has the chance."

"Oh." Marui can feel himself paling.

"If you understand , stay away from Cauldron," Niou says. He retreats to his room, cat-Yagyuu following.

.

They hire a girl around Urayama's age who goes to a local culinary school. Her name is Sakuno. She shows up on time and helps Jackal with his baking, quickly picking up on his special additions that make his food better than anyone else's. Every morning, Marui takes three dozen muffins to the café, a dozen to the bookstore, and another two dozen to Cauldron three times a week.

Sometimes Niou is working behind the counter, brewing tea for customers or bagging items from the shelves. Other times, Niou disappears to the mysterious back room and comes back with a black bag for a customer. On these occasions, Niou goes to the back room without being told to do so and the customer leaves without paying. Marui does not want to know what is being exchanged.

"Two dozen with five extra pumpkin. Jackal wants to try out a new recipe," Marui says.

He sets two large, blue and brown boxes on the counter. Niou begins to stack the muffins in the small glass display at the end of the counter. When he notices that Marui hasn't left, his blue eyes flash red. Marui thinks they change color based on his mood, but he's only ever seen red and blue.

"Why are you still here?" Niou asks. He has made it very clear that he dislikes Marui's presence and the first time Niou was at the counter when Marui delivered muffins left Marui feeling scared for his life. "Leave."

Marui thinks rather than speaks: _Is everyone who comes here magical?_

"Not always," Niou says. "Some people don't know and think this is just a tea shop. Most of our clients are magical, which is why you should stay away."

_Are you worried about me?_

"Some werewolves have a fetish for human boys."

_Werewolves?_

"And lions and tigers and bears," Niou says sardonically.

_Oh my._

Niou smirks. Something about that little twitch of his lips fills Marui with a sense of pride.

Niou flicks his blue eyes to Marui, no doubt having heard his internal _ah-ha!_ of victory, and says, "Don't you have a job to get back to?"

While the idea of staying and pestering Niou is appealing, Niou has a point. Marui leaves the tea shop and heads to the bakery.

.

Kirihara has to work extra hours to help cover the bills. Yukimura runs his resume to every convenience store within walking distance. Jackal tells Marui he can take a raise and a bonus and he nearly cries tears of joy—nearly. When Yukimura asks Niou for an advance on his rent, Niou takes up extra shifts at Cauldron.

They're all exhausted and pushed to the point of hysteria.

Marui curls up on the couch after work, completely oblivious to the fact that Kirihara is already sinking into the hole. At some point, after Kirihara has draped an arm over Marui and Marui has started using Kirihara's other arm as a pillow, cat-Yagyuu jumps up and sits next to Marui's legs.

Yukimura comes in from work and chuckles. Marui is aware enough to hear this and flip him off. He hears a soft _Marui_ and thinks Yukimura is mumbling to himself out of lack of sleep. Then cat-Yagyuu digs his claws into Marui's hip, waking him fully. Yagyuu jumps off the sofa and runs to Niou's door, scratching at the wood.

_Marui_, he hears again.

_Niou?_

_Come to my room._

Marui wants to tell Niou to fuck off, but he doesn't. He rolls off the sofa and opens Niou's door. Kirihara is dead to the world and Yukimura is back in his room so he doesn't have to answer why he's going into Niou's room. He doesn't think saying it was a telepathic request is acceptable.

Yagyuu runs inside, changing into a fully clothed human once the door is closed. Niou is lying across the floor in front of his chest where thick black smoke rises from the mortar and pestle. Yagyuu turns Niou onto his back and he groans.

"What happened?" Yagyuu asks. "You've done this spell before. Was your lavender dead?"

"Don't know," Niou croaks. His irises have gone black, which is the creepiest thing Marui has ever seen in his life. "I can't move."

"Help me," Yagyuu says.

Marui nods. Yagyuu hooks his arms under Niou's arms and Marui grabs him by the feet, and they move him into his curtained bed to place him on the mattress. Niou turns into Yagyuu's touch. Yagyuu cups his head gently in his hands, thumbs rubbing circles. They look like lovers.

"It's not like that," Niou says. "How many times do I need to tell you that?"

"Stop reading my mind," Marui says. He doesn't deny that he just thought they were together. "And if it's not like that, then how is it? Familiars and their charges are cuddle buddies or something?"

"My magic can flow into him through physical contact," Yagyuu says. "I'm correcting his body's magic so it does not kill him."

As he talks, Niou's irises begin to turn blue.

"So what were you doing?" Marui asks. "What spell?"

"A protection spell," Yagyuu says. "For you three. Things in our world are not well and he was concerned for your safety. I told him to not perform it until the full moon."

"Too long to wait," Niou mutters.

"I'm going to get him some things," Yagyuu says. "Can you stay with him?"

"Sure," Marui says.

Niou reaches up to wrap his fingers around Yagyuu's wrist and stays still for several moments before nodding. Yagyuu slides away, his eyes dilating then contracting, and rears down onto all fours as he turns into a tabby cat. He jumps up into the open window and runs down the fire escape.

Niou's head lolls to the side. Marui doesn't know what to do so he does what feels right: he takes Niou by the hand and waits for Yagyuu to come back.

.

Niou sleeps for three days. On Friday, when Kirihara is at class and Yukimura is out grocery shopping, Yagyuu helps Niou venture into the kitchen and make a cup of tea. Niou leans against the counter, slowly sipping his tea and exhaling deeply after every sip. He's pressed up against Yagyuu.

"Are you feeling any better?" Marui asks.

"Hmm," Niou says.

"His pig blood was not harvested under a new moon so it corrupted the spell," Yagyuu says. That sounds about as reasonable as anything else as of late.

Niou tilts his head onto Yagyuu's shoulder. Yagyuu guides the cup to Niou's mouth and murmurs, "Drink. It will adjust your levels."

Niou does not look too happy as he lifts his head with great effort to drink. Marui takes a box from Doubles Bakery out of the fridge and puts it on the counter. He takes one of the cream-puffs and jumps up onto the counter.

"You should eat too," Marui says. "Humans need to eat. You are human, right?"

"Witches are warlocks are human—some more so than others," Yagyuu says. Niou is eyeing the box of pastries with tired interest. "A warlock's life force is tied to their magic. If their magic is strong, they can live far past a normal human. They die when their magic burns out or is blocked by things like bad pig blood."

Niou reaches for the box of pastries, even though it is several feet away. The box does not shift or float towards him. Niou frowns. Yagyuu sighs and retrieves a large cream-puff for Niou.

"So what's wrong in the magical community that made you want to protect us anyways?" Marui asks.

Yagyuu purrs, which is really freaky because he's still in his human form. Niou shakes his head and Yagyuu purrs again, louder this time. Niou takes a sip of tea as Yagyuu begins to rub his back.

"There's talk of coming out to the human population," Niou says, slowly like it takes great effort. "Warlocks and witches, then other creatures over time. Some are opposed to this. Humans who know of our existence and support the movement are being killed. If people found out you know, they may kill you, or all three of you."

Marui remembers his reaction to discovering magic. He panicked and thought Niou was going to kill him, then he accepted it. Magic is real and it usually brings no harm. But there are people out there who would not think the same way. They would call Niou a demon and demand his head on a stick—or worse.

"How do you feel about coming out?" Marui asks.

"I don't know," Niou says. "I'm undecided. It's not a new topic, but the amount of people who want to is... startling."

Yagyuu purrs again, strokes Niou's neck, has him take another sip of tea. "Cauldron is becoming a place for those who want to reveal our existence to the public," Yagyuu says. "Atobe is leading a large movement to come out and a pureblooded dragon like him has a large sphere of influence. People are beginning to take notice."

"So that's why I should stay away," Marui says. "If I get too close to Cauldron, people will think I'm supporting a magical reveal and I'll be killed."

Niou nods.

"You need to sleep," Yagyuu says softly to Niou.

Niou begins to walk towards him room, Yagyuu following close behind in case he falls. Marui finishes his cream-puff, puts the box in the fridge, and goes to get his sketch book. He plans on spending the day at the park drawing flowers for references for when he makes cakes.

He's half way out the door when he hears, _Bring me more cream-puffs._

.

The café begins to sell the cream-puffs and croissants, something Sakuno taught Jackal how to make. When the café and bookstore begin to request more muffins every morning, they hire a third baker named Tooyama, who helps Jackal perfect his sourdough recipe. They three bakers begin to talk about putting in another oven when they begin to sellout of banana bread, melon bread, and monkey bread nearly every day.

Marui restocks the shelves and decorates more cupcakes than ever before. Jackal suggests selling the sugar flowers Marui makes. Marui buys a bouquet of roses to sketch during his break at the bakery. He comes home from work with a cramp in his hand but he hasn't been this happy in years.

"Did you get laid?" Kirihara asks when he sees him.

"No," Marui says, not bothering to wipe the stupid smile off his face.

"That is your post sex face," Yukimura says.

"Shut up," Marui snaps.

The two laugh and go back to killing zombies on Xbox. Marui goes into the bathroom to shower only to find Niou washing crystals in the sink. He's not wearing a shirt and Marui stares at his tattoos for far too long. He seems even skinner than before, his ribs showing at his sides, his muscles slimmed but still present.

"What?" Niou snaps. His eyes are red. "And you forgot to knock."

"Sorry," Marui says. "Everything okay? Your eyes are red."

Niou takes in a deep breath and on his exhale, his eyes turn blue. "Frustrated is probably the better word," he says. "I can't get this amethyst clean and I need to scry for something."

"Scrying is looking for something, right?"

"Yes."

"So what are you looking for?"

"True hallow ground. I need soil for my new protection spell. This one doesn't use pig blood."

"You know that we can take care of ourselves," Marui says. "I'm sure if you told Akaya and Seiichi, they would be careful and—"

"No," Niou says. "This way is safer. It's easier."

Marui reaches out and places a hand on his shoulder. "Niou, we're fine."

Niou takes his crystal and leaves.

.

If Niou's new spell works, Marui can't tell. He doesn't feel any different and when he asks Kirihara and Yukimura, they give him strange looks and say they feel the same. Marui continues on as if nothing had happened, making the bakery's delivery to Cauldron when Sakuno or Tooyama can't. Whenever he sees Niou, they do not talk, which is probably another way of protecting him.

Marui's walking home from the bakery when he sees Niou exiting a butcher's shop. Marui jogs across the street and walks alongside him.

"I doubt you got a bag full of meat," Marui says. "Magic stuff?"

"Chicken feet, pig feet, and pig blood harvested at the correct time so I don't die."

For some reason, Marui smiles. "Good, because I don't know what I'd tell Seiichi or Akaya if I found your body in front of some alter with bad pig blood."

"Very funny."

"I thought so."

Niou cracks a small smile, then they fall into silence. Marui wonders if Niou is reading his thoughts and decides to scream mentally to see if he is. When Niou has no reaction, Marui decides his mind is safe. Is telepathy something that can be turned off and on? Marui cannot imagine hearing Kirihara's perverted thoughts all day long.

.

Marui smells smoke coming from Niou's room and knocks on the door. He hears Niou's voice in his head, something he has grown accustomed, telling him to come inside. He spots incense burning on the chest, sweet flowers and spicy herbs mixing together in the perfect harmony. The crystals are reflecting light over the walls like stars and the curtains around Niou's bed are glowing.

Marui parts the fabric. Niou is sitting cross-legged in the center of his bed. In front of his feet is a crystal ball radiating soft, warm white light. His eyes are closed.

"What are you doing?" Marui asks.

"Meditating," Niou says. He breathes in deeply then exhales through his mouth, golden spirals like visible wind tumbling past his lips. "Expending magic so it doesn't become too overwhelming for my body. Is there something you needed?"

"I was just wondering what the smoke was," Marui says. "You burn incense all the time, but it's stronger."

"It's my magic." As he speaks, more gold rolls out of his mouth. "It makes everything... _more_."

"Can I stay?"

Niou nods.

Marui sits across from Niou, taking on his meditative pose. He closes his eyes and breathes in deeply. He feels waves of warmth wash over his skin as Niou breathes in and out, his magic pouring out of him like its alive. His skin begins to tingle and his mind races with so many thoughts he can't distinguish them from one another.

He opens his eyes to stare at Niou, at the ends of his tattoo on his wrists that are barely visible, at the golden magic leaving him, at the aura he seems to be emitting. He is gorgeous, like pure magic.

_My magic is affecting you_, Niou thinks. _Don't let it control you._

_It's hard to breathe._

_You're not used to direct magic exposure. It can be overwhelming._

_Did you always have magic?_

_No._

_How do you deal with this? _

_Breathe._

Marui can feel his blood in his veins. He can hear colors and see sounds and it is the strangest, most amazing sensation. He tastes herbs on the tip of his tongue and wonders if it's the incense or Niou's magic. He wonders what Niou's lips taste like.

Niou opens his eyes and they're golden like the sun.

Marui surges forward and cups Niou's face in his hands. His skin tingles where it touches Niou's. His lips burn when they slide against his. Niou reaches up, grasping Marui's wrist and electricity runs into his bones.

Marui is somewhere between euphoric and scared stiff because it's him, it's Niou, the warlock who turned everything he knew on its head. It's his lips moving against his, his tongue prodding at the crease between his full bottom lip and thin upper lip, and his magic that's consuming him.

Perhaps Niou comes to his senses because he breaks the kiss, leaving Marui's mouth ajar as he nudges forward for more. But Niou doesn't move for more. He stays still.

"It's only the magic," Niou says. He rubs his mouth against Marui's cheek, lips that taste like tea leaves and cream-puffs dragging slowly, teasing. "You don't feel this way."

Their noses brush and Marui wants to go back to kissing. _Come on_, he thinks, _come on, come on, come on_.

Marui nips at Niou's upper lip and slides his hands into Niou's hair, grasping for a tether to reality as magic flows into his body. He dips his head, reels Niou's closer, connects in another kiss in search of something more.

Magic wraps around him like a cocoon of warm blankets. Niou breathes out when Marui breathes in and Niou's most intimate secret pours into him. He wants more, more, fuck, he's losing his mind.

He hears it before he's able to make sense of it. A low, deep vibration of sound that grows in volume. He releases his grip on Niou's hair only realizing how tight it had been when his fingers feel empty. Marui looks over Niou's shoulder at the open window where the tabby cat sits.

Yagyuu hisses.

_You should go_, Niou thinks. His lips drag along Marui's cheek. Marui tilts his head again, wanting more, but Niou shakes his head. _Go._

He doesn't want to, but he leaves anyways.


	2. Part II

**Part II**

Living with a warlock had been easy. Living with a warlock who he made out with is significantly more difficult.

Marui goes about his business as usual; he picks up the mail and puts what isn't his into the Fruit Loops box, treks to work from eight to eight six days a week, and draws until his fingers calloused. He ignores the strange smells coming from the warlock's room, pretending he doesn't hear the pops and whistles or see the smoke drifting out the window.

He has not spoken to Niou since Niou's magic swallowed him, because that's what happened. Marui drowned in Niou, in his magic, felt suffocated by it all and so at peace when he just let it happen. That's the thing about drowning, it's peaceful once you stop fighting.

Marui takes the morning delivery to the bookstore and café then makes his way to Cauldron. He knows Niou is working today and does not want to see him. The rational part of his brain knows he can't avoid Niou forever, but the irrational part of his brain is screaming for him to avoid the warlock.

Niou is handing a woman a cup of tea when Marui comes in. He sets the boxes on the counter and cannot bring himself to think. At least he doesn't have to worry about Niou reading his mind when he has no thoughts to read.

"Atobe wants to sell more of these. He told me to tell you," Niou says. He begins to unload the muffins into the display stand. "Jackal has his email."

"Then I'll let Jackal know," Marui says. "We may need to expand the kitchen at this rate."

Niou tosses the boxes into the trash when he's finished emptying them and returns to stand opposite of Marui. His eyes have long since returned to normal, but Marui swears he can still see flecks of gold amongst the shades of blue.

"I brought you a cream-puff," Marui says, setting a smaller box containing his peace offering on the counter. Niou smiles and opens the box, taking a large bite. Niou moans like its sex. "You must really like cream-puffs."

"There's magic in these," Niou says.

"What?"

"Cooking is a type of magic. You put part of yourself into what you make. There's a merit to saying something made with love tastes better."

"Does that mean everyone has magic?"

Niou finishes off the cream-puff. "Artists are the same," he says. "Why do you think the best artists tend to die young? They put their magic into their work and burn out. You do it too, when you draw or make cakes. I can sense it, the same way I can sense the magic Jackal put into his cream-puffs."

"I never thought that was possible," Marui says. "So I have magic?"

"Not many humans can see my eyes change color," Niou says. Marui realizes that isn't quite an answer, but it's not nothing either. "Some magic can only be seen with magic."

"That sounds like a paradox."

"A small one."

Marui shifts his weight. "I should get back to work," he says. "I'll see you later."

"Bring me some more cream-puffs."

Marui rolls his eyes and leaves the shop.

.

Marui cannot forget the specks of copper and wisps of molten sun in Niou's golden eyes. He remembers the dull rim where iris met pupil, the glow of magic, the energy simmering and waiting to explode. He aches to see Niou's most intimate part again, to be wrapped inside of his magic and drown in it. He tries to draw what he saw, but his memory does not do the real thing justice.

Niou stands in the kitchen alone in the middle of the night, drinking tea from his mug and reading _Clash of Kings_. Niou looks at him, eyes blue.

"Why are you up?" Marui asks. "It's four in the morning."

"I could ask you the same thing. I made too much tea."

"Is that your way of offering me tea?"

"Yes."

Marui smiles and Niou hands him a mug of lukewarm tea. It's rich in color and smells earthy. The taste reminds him of Niou's lips.

"Did you put magic in it?" Marui asks.

"A small amount," Niou says. "Hiroshi adds magic to my tea when my levels aren't right. Usually the tea leaves are enough to correct my levels without adding anything extra."

"Honey is nice."

"There's some in here. Cauldron has it's own bee hives."

Marui doesn't know why that's funny, but he laughs. He sees Niou smile into his cup as he turns the page in his book. Niou's smile is like his personality, beautiful and rough and raw and all of the things Marui is not.

Niou's eyes seem brighter than normal when he smirks.

Marui doesn't need telepathy to know what Niou is doing.

_Stop reading my thoughts_, Marui thinks.

"Think more softly," Niou replies. "Your thoughts are loud. I have never heard Kirihara or Yukimura's thoughts."

"Maybe you just want to hear my thoughts more than theirs."

"Perhaps."

Niou kicks away from the counter, passing by Marui to go into his room. Niou smells like smoke and lavender.

.

Kirihara texts Marui to tell him he won't be home for pizza night because he has a date. Marui replies with a concise _fuck you_ and sinks down into the sofa. Yukimura is working a late shift at a convenience store down the street to pay the bills, Jackal is exhausted from work, and everyone else he even remotely considers his friend is busy.

Marui is watching crappy television when he hears Niou's door open and close.

"I'm going out," Niou says, walking past with his messenger bag covered in Wiccan symbols. He stops several feet away from Marui and frowns. "You're radiating bad vibes. What's wrong?"

"I'm bored," Marui says. "Pizza night isn't fun by myself."

"Do you want to come with me?" Niou asks. "I'm going to collect some things for a spell."

"Couldn't you get them from work?"

"Atobe makes me pay and Sanada gives me things for free."

"Am I going to get pulled into some wizard adventure and have to run for my life?"

"Hopefully not," Niou says, a hint of a smile on his thin lips.

"Then I'll come."

They take a train to the edge of town. It's late so there are plenty of seats, and Niou spends the trip reading from one of his large, old tomes that's written in ruins that Marui cannot read. There are ink pictures of different plants, flowers, and berries so Marui assumes it's an identification book. Niou reads intently.

They stop at the station at the end of the line. They're the only ones on the train by that point and walk in silence along the sidewalk. There are more trees in this area than Marui has seen in his whole life. Niou cuts onto a dirt path that leads into a patch of trees, walking past several small statues and dream-catchers of different designs. Wind-chimes hang from trees and jingle as winds rush past. Marui thinks he hears laughing amongst the thicket of trees.

They come to the front of a two floor house with a sign reading Sanada Dojo hanging from the roof. Niou opens the front sliding door telekinetically as they approach. A man inside shouts, "Niou, I told you to knock!"

Niou knocks on the wood as he comes inside. "I'm coming in."

A capped man—Sanada, Marui presumes—comes from downstairs and Niou stops so suddenly that Marui nearly runs into his back.

"Your nymphs are laughing," Niou comments. "Did Yanagi come and enchant the spring at the full moon?"

"Yes," Sanada says. "And most people say 'hello' before commenting on the state of the householder's nymphs."

"Hello," Niou says.

"Are you a warlock?" Marui asks. He wonders when this became a normal, reasonable question in his life. Sanada's home does not smell of burning incense or have strange stains like Niou's room.

"I'm a human with no magical ability," Sanada says. "Who is your friend, Niou?"

"I told you about him. He's the guy I live with that can see Atobe's scales and my eyes change."

"I never told you I saw Atobe's scales," Marui says. "And if you say I think to loudly, so help me I will spill your pig blood down the drain."

"Atobe said you looked at him funny," Niou says. He turns his attention to Sanada. "I'm going into the gardens. I need to harvest before the moon exits its current arc."

Sanada sighs and gestures for Niou to move through the back of the house to the garden outside. Marui is overrun by smells and colors as pollen sticks to his skin. There are pots overflowing with sage, thyme, mint, and other herbs; rows camellia and chamomile and other flowering plants that should not be blooming this time of year; corners stuffed with holly bushes and mounds sprouting hibiscus. Willows hang over a small pond and cedar trees circle a grove of St. John's wort.

Marui watches as a green-skinned woman disappears into the willow tree. A nymph?

Niou kneels next to the large pond and begins to tug night-blooming water lilies towards him, cutting them with a pair of scissors from his bag. Marui and Sanada stand under a lattice entangled with spanish moss, ivy, and roses.

"If you're human, how did you get involved in the magical community?" Marui asks.

"My best friend growing up was a seer," Sanada says. He watches Niou carefully, as if taking note of what he is harvesting. When Niou pulls a small shovel out of his bag, Sanada grumbles, "Warlocks and their obsession with roots..."

"Do you sell this stuff?"

"Not usually. I supply them for friends of Renji, the seer I know. I trust his judgement on who will use them for good and who will not."

Looking at all the plants, Marui wonders if Sanada has access to some magical soil or water that helps him keep this garden up to snuff. Many of these plants aren't supposed to grow in the area or during this season. And Marui is fairly certain growing things like belladonna and hellebore is not allowed.

"How did you get involved?" Sanada asks.

"When I saw his tattoos and eyes change colors, I freaked and demanded to know what the hell was going on. He told me. His familiar wasn't too happy."

"You saw his tattoos?" Sanada says, sounding surprised. Marui nods. "I have never seen a high ranking warlock's tattoos before. Not many live after they do."

"Niou's high ranking? There's _ranks_?"

"There are many ranks and he is very high in them. His tattoos are a mark of that." Sanada studies him in a way that makes Marui uneasy. "And not many can see Niou's eyes change colors. I cannot. Many seasoned warlocks cannot see such a thing."

"He said it takes magic to see magic," Marui says. "Whatever that means."

"It means more than you may think," Sanada says.

Niou tears several plants out of the ground and Sanada pinches the bridge of his nose. Niou finishes plucking leaves, deflowering blossoms, and digging up roots after half an hour. He stuffs everything into his bag and approaches the two, handing Sanada a twisted root dripping black sap.

"Your mandrake is bad," Niou says. "I think a pixie got to it. I found some wings near the plants."

"I'll have it fixed by next week," Sanada says. "Renji gave me an anti-pixie charm a month ago and it should still be good."

"As long as it's not been chilled or heated," Niou says.

Marui and Niou leave after declining a cup of tea and catch the last train back into town. Marui debates making a joke about why they can't just hope on a broomstick, but he has the feeling Niou would be offended by that so he bites his tongue.

.

Marui sits on the couch and works on a cake design to celebrate Sakuno and Tooyama getting together at work. Kirihara is playing with cat-Yagyuu, using a feather teaser to make him run back and forth. Something about that disturbs Marui and he figures Yagyuu has to appear to be a cat. It would be weird to see a cat reading or doing the crossword.

Or maybe he likes cat toys. Who knows at this point?

Marui feels it as he finishes sketching a rose. He does not know exactly what _it _is, other than that it is amazing. He feels purple and blue, something he didn't know is possible, but he cannot describe it any other way. It is a sense of calm and peace, like pure tranquility washing over him.

Yagyuu's eyes perk up and he walks up to Niou's room, scratching the wooden door. Kirihara calls for the cat to come back and Marui stands up to open Niou's door. Niou is sitting in front of his chest, which is covered in amethyst crystals.

"Is everything okay?" Marui asks. "I felt... something."

"Come in," Niou says.

Marui closes the door behind him, ignoring Kirihara shouts asking why he's going into Niou's room. Yagyuu shifts into human form and adjusts his glasses.

"What did you feel?" Yagyuu asks.

"I don't know," Marui says. "A calmness."

"Blue and purple, a bit of turquoise," Niou murmurs. He moves some of the crystals around, opens a mason jar and sprinkles a powder into a mortar.

"Yeah," Marui says. "How'd you know?"

"Magic cannot be comprehended by our usual senses," Yagyuu says. "Most feel colors. Those with more magic see the colors—most people call them auras."

"Are you working on a spell?" Marui asks.

"Atobe asked me to make talismans to sell at the shop," Niou says. He lifts an amulet from the mortar, presses it to his lips, and chants in another language. Marui feels another rush of calm. "Simple peace bringing charms."

Niou sets the amulet into a wooden box. Once the box is closed, he holds his palm over the top and says an incantation in a dead language. His palm glows and when he lifts it from the wood, there is a scorched symbol on the top of the box.

"You could feel it," Niou says.

"Feel what?" Marui says.

"Magic. You could sense it like I do." Niou looks at Marui for a moment, then looks back at his chest. "I need to finish these. Please leave. Hiroshi, I need more sage."

Yagyuu heads to the window where Niou's plants are and Marui heads to the door.

.

When Jackal hires another cashier, Marui is able to take Tuesday off every week. He walks out of his room to make a pot of coffee at eight and nearly walks straight into Niou. The warlock is holding a towel around his waist, his arms bare and tattoos visible. His hair hangs wet and limp on his shoulders.

"You're here," Niou says. "It's not Friday, is it?"

"How long did you sleep?" Marui says and laughs at the small panic in Niou's eyes. "It's Tuesday. Business is well and we hired another guy so I'll have Tuesdays off too."

"Don't scare me like that," Niou says, slightly irritated. "I've slept through entire weeks at times and I honestly don't know what day it is half the time."

"Does magic take a lot out of you? I know you said it's part of your life force, but is it that tiring?"

"It depends. It can be very consuming."

"It seems more of a pain than anything else."

"You've felt magic," Niou says and Marui cannot meet his eyes. They still haven't discussed the drunken magic kiss. "To me, it is well worth the pain."

Marui remembers being wrapped in Niou's magic and how powerful it had been. He remembers sensing Niou's magic from a distance and the calmness it brought to him. Since then, he has sensed magic in small things—Jackal's cooking, in his drawings. He feels a pull to anything with magic, even if he does not realize it is magic right away.

"I have off," Niou mentions. "I was planning on visiting a bookstore. I don't know if it's something you'd wanna do, but..." Niou trails off and shrugs like he couldn't care less.

"A nonmagical bookstore or a magical bookstore?"

"Nonmagical."

"Sure."

"Let me get dressed then we'll go."

Niou disappears into his room and Marui wonders if it is magic that is making his heart beat stupidly fast.

.

Jackal makes a cake every day for Marui to decorate. Sometimes he does simple things, like swirled frosting, but other days he adds sugar roses or more intricate decorations. Marui takes more pride in his work than he has in years and it is showing. He supposes it is the magic he is putting in, even if he does not understand how he is doing it. He has stopped trying to understand magic and just accept it.

One night, Marui goes out drinking with Jackal and the other workers after the work day has ended. They toast to Sakuno and Tooyama and their relationship, to the new cashier, and to the success of the shop. Marui comes home at midnight, slightly more intoxicated than he would currently admit.

Kirihara is asleep on the sofa, one of his textbooks draped over his stomach and cat-Yagyuu curled between his comically spread out legs. Marui veers to one side to the apartment to go to sleep, laughing when he almost hits the wall, and sees Niou's door.

He goes inside without thinking. The room is dark except for the small amount of moonlight coming in from the window and the gentle glow of crystals. Niou sits up in his curtained bed, his body silhouetted by the moonlight.

"You said you were human once," Marui says as he stumbles into the room.

"I am human," Niou replies.

"Fine. You said you weren't a warlock." Marui sits at the bottom of Niou's mattress and leans forward to try and see his face, but it is too dark to see anything besides the dull blue glow of his eyes. Human eyes don't do that in the dark.

"What's your point?" Niou asks.

"Why'd you become a wizard?"

"Don't ever call me a wizard again. And you're drunk."

"No. Maybe. A little. Yes."

Niou gets up, the string lights turning on and illuminating the room. Niou's tattoos seem to move when he walks to his chest—maybe they are moving for all Marui knows. Niou opens the chest, coming back to the bed with a little blue bottle with a parchment tag.

"Does it say 'drink me?'" Marui asks. Niou hands him the bottle and Marui tries to read the tag, but it's in ruins. "What's it say?"

"The closest word in this language is 'hangover,'" Niou says. "It'll absorb any of the alcohol in your system."

Marui stupidly downs it in one go.

If Marui had to describe the smell, he'd compare it to road kill rotting on the side of the road that's been simmering in the summer sun for over a week and is covered in maggots. Multiple that by ten, then multiple that number by hundred and that's how it tastes.

"Most people ask if there are side effects to brewed potions before drinking them," Niou says.

"I trust you." He says it like it's the most obvious thing in the world. Marui wonders if his face looks green because he feels green—and not in a magical way. "I'm gonna be sick."

"At least you'll be sober," Niou says. "Go to sleep."

Marui collapses onto the mattress, his head hitting the edge of Niou's pillow. Niou presses on his shoulder to roll him over, but Marui does not budge. Niou sighs and the lights dim until they are once again in darkness.

"Just don't hog the blanket," Niou says.

Niou lies down and Marui curls up like Yagyuu does when he's a cat. Niou's legs stretch out and one of his arms lazily falls over Marui's side, thumb rubbing circles on the back of his ribs. He feels the warmth of Niou's body and a familiar buzz, like gold. He smiles when he realizes he is feeling Niou's magic.

.

Marui realizes his feelings when he's eating a bowl of cereal by the window in the living room, sketching the stormy overcast in the distance. It explains so much that it seems obvious in retrospect, but for some reason he had not come to a concrete resolution until that very moment.

_I love Niou._

Marui drinks the milk from his bowl and sets it to the side to continue drawing. It does not change anything. He has felt this way for some time now. The only thing that has changed is that he is aware of it. He wonders when it happened, but realizes love is not a linear process. It is gradual, like the retreating tide.

Yukimura brings Indian food home at two in the morning, putting Kirihara's in the fridge for him to eat once he's done work. Marui and Yukimura eat in the living room, watching bad television, and discussing stupid things to pass the time.

"You seem deep in thought," Yukimura says. "Something on your mind?"

"Not really. Just stuff."

"Hmm. Well, I'll leave you to your stuff, because I am exhausted." Yukimura tosses his containers into the trash then retreats to his room for the night.

Marui stays up watching television even after Kirihara comes homes and takes his food into his room, grumbling and exhausted like a zombie. Marui falls asleep on the sofa and wakes up to a cup of tea and a note.

_I put a heating charm on it so it will be the exact temperature the drinker prefers. You owe me two cream-puffs.  
-Niou_

Marui wonders why Niou would put something like that on a note that Yukimura or Kirihara could read. He cups the mug in his hands and brings it to his lips, inhaling the familiar aroma before taking a sip. He feels magenta.

Marui heads to the bakery even though he is off. He slips into the back and boxes two fresh cream-puffs, grabs a slice of banana bread, and heads out the door. Urayama is too busy helping people to notice his appearance and disappearance. He eats his banana bread as he walks to Cauldron where Niou is cleaning the floor.

"I come with cream-puffs," Marui says, offering the box which Niou takes immediately.

"I wasn't serious when I wrote the note," Niou says before taking a large bite. He smiles, finishes off the first cream-puff, and closes the box to save the second for later.

"So why exactly did you leave a note mentioning magic in the middle of the living room?"

"Hiroshi was watching the note," Niou says. He licks his fingers free of cream. "He's got a bit of a cat-cold so he's staying in the apartment until his fever breaks."

"Where does he live?" Marui asks. He has seen Yagyuu most days, but there have been long periods when he has not seen the familiar in cat or human form.

"He has a day job like any human and has his own place, but he stays with me most of the time since I'm his charge," Niou says. "I should get back to work."

"Yeah. It's my week to go grocery shopping so I should get going anyways," Marui says. "See you at home?"

"Yeah." Marui begins to walk away, but stops when Niou asks, "How'd you like the tea?"

"It was good."

Marui doesn't see Niou's smile, but he feels it and it is pink.

.

Marui begins to realize that Niou takes off Tuesdays and Fridays more than any other day. Niou teaches Marui the different plants that Sanada grows in his garden and how to cut things to avoid hurting the nymphs that live in the plant or the gnomes that have nested in the roots. There's a pixie who has taken over a pot of toadstool and refuses to let anyone but Sanada harvest her mushrooms.

Marui sits in Niou's room while Niou does his spells or when he reads his books. Marui takes Niou's copy of _Ruins to Modern Language (Six Hundred Languages Included)_ and begins to learn ruins in his spare time. When Marui tells Niou he's studying them, Niou gives him books on alchemic and Wiccan symbols. Marui feels like he's at Hogwarts.

One Friday, it begins to rain when Niou and Marui are in a nonmagical bookstore they regularly visit. Niou says he could cast a repulsion charm on them, but Marui is content with camping in the fantasy section and waiting out the storm. They sit shoulder-to-should and read from their respective stack of books while drinking bad hot chocolate.

When they get cold, Niou chants and a warmth envelopes them like a blanket. Marui lets his head loll to the side, resting it on Niou's shoulder.

"What do you feel?" Niou asks.

"Gold," Marui says. "And brown?"

"Yes. You're getting better."

Marui smiles.

When the rain lets up, they stay in their corner.

.

Yukimura writes an article about Doubles Bakery that includes an interview with Jackal and Marui. He writes about the bakery's start, the types of food they offer, and how the business has been expanding. He spends a large amount of time talking about Marui's cakes. The day after the article is published, the line for the bakery is out the door and Jackal, Tooyama and Sakuno are working as fast as they can and it's still not fast enough.

Marui gets asked multiple times if he takes cake orders and when he says he doesn't, he gets asked how much he'd charge for a cake. Jackal makes a cake order form after the shop has closed down; he puts it on the bakery website and puts a stack by the register. Marui has five orders by the end of the week.

He works late to make the fondant he'll need for tomorrow, then heads home and crashes in Niou's room, curling into a large beanbag chair that feels like clouds—Niou says it is a cloud, which wrecks Marui's mind, but he doesn't argue. Niou is tending to his plant boxes on the fire escape while cat-Yagyuu eats the catnip he is trying to water.

"You're going to get wet," Niou says. Yagyuu nips at him and Niou backs off, swearing and climbing in through the window. "Son of a witch."

Marui laughs and curls up in the cloud chair. He feels gold, the color of Niou's magic, and silver and brown. He closes his eyes when he's hit with a wave of pink.

"Are you working on a love spell?" Marui asks. "I feel pink. Maybe Yagyuu really likes that catnip."

When Niou does not say anything, he turns and sees Niou squatting in front of him. Marui does not flinch when Niou reaches out, his long fingers curving around the back of his neck.

"Your aura has been changing," Niou says. "It's magenta and purple with these curling wisps of silver and white."

"Is that a good thing?" Marui asks.

"It's not good or bad. It's just different." Niou's thumb rubs along his skin. Marui leans into the touch, exhaling a long breath. "I brought some peanut butter cookies home from work. They have a pick-me-up spell. Want some?"

Marui wraps his fingers around the wrist near his jaw. He nods, but keeps his hold on Niou, lets his magic seep in through his skin, then gently lets go. Niou's hand lingers for several seconds before it is pulled away.

"Your magic is soothing," Marui says. "What's mine feel like?"

"Brilliant."

"Like a genius?" Marui grins. "Heck yeah. I have genius magic."

"Shut up," Niou says, but there's no venom behind it. He gets up and retrieves a box of cookies. Marui scoots over on the cloud and makes room for Niou.

.

Marui sits near the pond at Sanada's dojo while Niou argues with a nymph over what branches he can cut from her juniper bush. Sanada has to intervene, and a naiad begins to flirt with Marui. When he politely tells the blue-skinned, algae-haired girl that he is interested in boys, she swims away with a huff.

Niou and Marui leave after the moon has left it's highest peak, but the trains aren't running and they have no means of getting back. They sit in the corner of a diner, drinking coffee and eating horrible oatmeal. Niou slides the salt and pepper shakers across the table with telekinesis and Marui tries to slide them back to no avail.

"It's difficult to perform magic without becoming a warlock," Niou says. He rolls up one of his sleeves and shows Marui his curling tattoos of ruins, alchemic symbols, and Wiccan marks. "These tattoos are infused with magic. They amplify your body's natural magic reserve and allow you to control it. Certain tattoos correlate to different ranks."

"You're high ranking," Marui says.

Niou nods and rolls down his sleeve. "Yes. If you were to get all of my tattoos, your body would burn up all of your magic and you would die. Most ranking warlocks have a tenth of what I have."

"So if I want to do actual magic, I need to become a warlock, and to do that, I need tattoos," Marui says.

Niou nods again, frowning solemnly. "People very rarely take on tattoos."

"Why not? You did."

"Not by choice." Niou thumbs the rim of his cup of coffee. "My mother was a prostitute and didn't care for me. I saw things that other children didn't—ghosts, dragon scales, angel wings. She thought I was a monster and gladly sold me to the first man who approached her."

Marui wants to reach across the table and calm Niou the way Yagyuu does, but he does not know how to transfer his magic and sooth him. Niou's face is indifferent and detached.

"The man was part of a cult," Niou goes on. "He gave me tattoos to amplify my magic, then his people took my magic from me. They put more and more ink on me until they didn't know what else to add. But my magic was too much for them. Gold magic is rare and it's strong. Their bodies couldn't handle it. They burned out and I ran."

"How old were you?" Marui asks.

"Eight when I was sold, fourteen when I got out," Niou says. "A familiar found me and took me to a safe haven where I met Hiroshi. He became my familiar and we learned magic together. Once I came of age, we left and entered the magic community."

Niou finally looks at him when he is finished. His eyes are a dull blue, no where near as brilliant as their usual glow.

Niou laughs softly. "I don't know why I just told you that."

Marui watches Niou as he drinks his coffee. He does not know what to say so he says nothing at all.

.

Marui wakes up early and goes out to breakfast with Yukimura before work, then spends the day designing cakes and working the register. He stays late to help Jackal with the books and comes home, exhausted, to collapse on the couch. Kirihara groans beneath him.

"I was here first," Kirihara says. "I had two essays due today and an exam."

"I don't have the energy to move," Marui says. "I never want to see another frosting tube in my life."

Cat-Yagyuu jumps up onto the back of the couch and falls asleep. Kirihara makes no further protest, but does wiggle away so Marui is not crushing him.

"Adult life is hard," Kirihara says.

_And you're not learning magic,_ Marui thinks bitterly.

Marui quickly becomes fluent in reading ruins, but the pronunciation is hard and Niou is having a difficult time teaching him without accidentally casting a spell or a hex. Yagyuu is more helpful with this. Marui can identify all of the plants in Sanada's garden, what they do in potions, and where to cut them to avoid pissing off the nature spirits. He senses magic in everything and finds that Niou's warm, golden magic is the most captivating.

Niou comes home from work, cradling cat-Yagyuu in his arms. Kirihara invites him to join their Xbox game, but Niou does not respond, disappearing into his room for several hours before coming out to shower with cat-Yagyuu trotting behind him.

"So I know this guy," Kirihara says.

"No," Marui says. "The last time you tried to set me up, I nearly got lung cancer."

"When's the last time you got laid?"

Marui chooses not to answer because the answer is depressing. There's nothing wrong with being single but damn, he misses some things that come along with relationships and casual hookups. Even if he did meet someone, he knows he'd think of Niou instead and that's just unfair to both parties.

"Can I tell you something?" Kirihara says.

"You know you can, brat," Marui says. He pauses the game for good measure and kicks Kirihara's ankle. "Girl problems?"

"Yeah." Kirihara tugs his legs into his chest and looks at a random point on the wall. He used to do the same thing when he was a kid and was worrying about a bad test grade. "I like this girl. I like her a lot. But she told me something and I don't know anymore."

"What'd she tell you?" Marui asks.

"She said she loves me and I didn't say anything so now she's upset. I've never loved anyone before." Kirihara buries his head between his knees. "What do you do when you love someone, Bunta?"

"You tell them." Marui feels like a hypocrite saying it because he loves Niou, he has for a long time now, but he hasn't been able to say anything.

"How? I'm scared. She already told me, but whenever I think of telling her, my throat clogs up and I feel like I'm going to be sick."

"Who said you had to tell her?" Marui kicks Kirihara's ankle again. "Show her, brat. Sometimes doing something is just as good as saying it. If she loves you, she'll understand and will wait for you to say it back."

Kirihara turns his head to look at him and smiles. "You always gave the best advice when you babysat me. Thanks. I'm gonna go and call her."

"What's her name?" Marui asks.

"An. I'll bring her by sometime."

Kirihara gets up and runs into his room. Marui looks at Niou's door and wonders what would happen if he tried to say those three simple words.

.

It's raining and Marui is overwhelmed by magic. The earth has strong magic and when it rains, it seems stronger than usual. Colors blur together and melt into fuzzy tingles throughout his body. Niou says thunderstorms are the worst because lightning causes bright, hot flashes of red. But right now it isn't lightning or thundering, and the rain is giving him a comfy fuzzy feeling.

"Do you want to get tattoos?" Niou asks, looking at him with bright blue eyes. They're coming home from the bookstore and Niou's magic encases them in a repulsion charm to keep them dry.

"I haven't thought about it," Marui says. "Should I?"

Niou shrugs, attempting to appear indifferent. "If you could perform spells and brew potions, you would be able to protect yourself when we come out."

"So it's happening? You're coming out?"

"Yeah. Atobe is keeping it quiet, but word is getting out and things may come out sooner than expected. If that happens, people are going to die."

Marui feels like there are unsaid thoughts at the end of that sentence. He wonders if _I don't want you to be one of them_ is one of those thoughts.

"I told you I didn't always have magic," Niou says. "I meant that I didn't have control over it. It's essentially the same thing, at least to me. If you get them, you could never go back."

"I already can't go back," Marui says, but Niou does not seem convinced. "Okay. _Maybe_ I could go back, but I don't want to. This stuff is a part of me now. Whether that's good or bad has yet to be seen, but I'm not backing out until I find that out for myself."

They continue on in silence, listening to the pitter-patter of the rain as it splashes into the ground around them. There would be no turning back once he got tattoos. This world that Niou introduced him to is crazy, but it is beautiful. He can't imagine his life without sweet incense, glowing crystals, and Niou's kaleidoscope eyes.

This is his choice and it will change his life. There is no question about what he wants.

"If I got them, could you come with me?" Marui asks.

Niou nods.

.

By the time Marui's next day off comes, the rain has stopped and Marui no longer feels the comforting earth magic. Niou takes him to a sketchy building next to an occult store that he frequents for his crystals and tomes. The tattoo parlor is very obviously magical, with a large triquetra and witch's knot on the front windows.

On the walls, there are sketches of different Wiccan and alchemic symbols, but also normal things that people get tattoos of—feathers, skulls, and intricate calligraphy. Spicy incense burns in the corner and clogs Marui's nose. Slow, gentle music plays from the speakers in the ceiling, like the kind of white noise Niou sometimes has playing when he meditates.

A lean, tan man with glasses and strange blue hair is sitting behind the counter with a human book. He's wearing a silver pendent in the shape of the triple goddess symbol and a name tag that reads Oshitari. He radiates green.

"Hello," Oshitari says, turning the page in the book and not looking up. "How can I help you?"

Another man comes in through the front door before Niou or Marui can get a word out. The short man is wearing impossibly tight pants and is storming the counter. He tosses a bag in front of Oshitari. A pool of what looks like blood is sitting at the bottom of the back.

"There's your fucking rabbit's foot," the man says. "Atobe charged me a shit ton for that. I told you I could have gotten Jirou to kill a rabbit for me. You owe me."

"Gakuto, we have customers," Oshitari says gently as he slides the bag under the counter. Gakuto rolls his eyes and walks through a curtain of beads into a back room. "Sorry about that. How can I help you two?"

"He needs first rank warlock tattoos," Niou says.

"I'll need magic," Oshitari says. His eyes turn into slits like a cat's and scales spread out like wrinkles from his eyes. "Unless you want snake magic."

"I'm using his," Marui says. Niou's blue eyes fix on him. They haven't talked about this. "Is that alright?"

"If that's what you want," Niou says.

The short red head in the skinny jeans comes back with a name tag that reads Mukahi. He leans on the counter next to Oshitari.

"Put your scales away, you freak," Mukahi says. Oshitari chuckles and his eyes return to normal. "So what do you want?"

"Warlock tattoos," Marui says.

Mukahi's eyes graze over him. "Yeah, you've got the mojo for them. You'll live."

"First rank tattoos consist of a pentacle, your zodiac sign, the four elemental alchemic symbols, and a series of ruins," Oshitari says. "Where do you want them? If you rise in rank, other symbols must be added, but they can be on a different part of your body."

When a wave of anxiety hits Marui, he brushes his hand against Niou's and soaks in his magic. He isn't doing this to calm Niou's mind, or to protect himself. He's doing this because he wants to know what it's like to use magic the way Niou does. He wants to feel _more_, like he had when Niou's magic had enveloped him.

"On my back, down my spine," Marui says.

"I'll get the scrolls," Mukahi says.

"Paper work," Oshitari sighs. "Boring, but necessary. You'll need to pick your ink color and he'll need to give me some of his magic."

Mukahi comes back with a parchment scroll, a feather quill, and an ink well. Oshitari begins to draw out the necessary symbols under Niou's watchful eye. Mukahi helps Marui through the paperwork, having him sign and initial throughout the document to show he comprehends the consequences of magical tattoos and that the parlor cannot be held responsible for how Marui uses his magic.

It feels like forever until Marui is taking off his shirt and lying down on a cold leather table. Niou sits next to him and Marui reaches for his hand. He lets Niou's magic flow through him and relaxes.

"Are you sure?" Niou asks. "We can still leave."

"I'm sure," Marui says.

Niou's eyes turn gold and, speaking in another tongue, he lures Marui to a twilight zone where he does not feel the pain of the needle or the burn of Niou's magic against his skin and bone.

In no time at all, Oshitari is done and Mukahi is wiping the last of the blood from his skin.

"We're finished," Oshitari says. "The magic will take about a week to set. After that, you should have full control. Your magic will be temperamental until then."

"It was all in the contract," Mukahi says.

"You can look in the mirrors," Oshitari adds.

Niou takes him out of his trance with a simple incantation, then follows behind as Marui moves to stand in front of the mirrors. Marui looks over his shoulder and is speechless.

The ink is dark blue, like the color on white porcelain. They twist down and around the knobs of his spine, dipping in and rippling with his muscles. The first symbol is on his top vertebrae and last ruin stops at his sixth. He can feel Niou's golden magic touching him.

"They're awesome," Marui says. "I love them."

"You're a warlock," Niou says. He's smiling softly and his eyes are slowly returning to blue. Marui smiles with him.

.

The first spell Marui performs is an incantation that causes the potion he is brewing to puff with smoke. He coughs, waves the smoke away, and stares down into Niou's cauldron. A light blue liquid swirls around the bottom before stilling. Niou leans over his shoulder, his chest to Marui's back, and looks at Marui's potion.

"Congratulations, you've created a simple sleeping potion," Niou says. He hands Marui a large turkey baster and an empty glass vial with a cork top. "Fill it to the top. It needs to set for a night before you can use it."

Marui sucks the potion into the turkey baster, then spits it back out into the glass vial. Niou kneels and scribbles ruins on a piece of paper, which he sticks to the outside of the vial. It reads sleep.

"How do you feel?" Niou asks.

"Amazing," Marui says. "I don't know how I went my whole life without feeling this."

"You should lie down and get some sleep. Most people get overwhelmed after using magic for the first time, even if all you did was an incantation." Niou stands and holds a hand out for Marui. His hands are large, skinny and warm. Marui takes it and stumbles.

"Don't smirk at me," Marui says as he sways. "Help me back to my room?"

"You should stay here. I want to monitor your magic."

Marui wants to tell Niou to stop worrying about him, that he's fine, but he holds his tongue. He knows how Niou got his tattoos and that Niou did not have the benefit of someone watching over him. If doing this eases Niou's thoughts, then Marui has no qualms with it.

Marui shucks off his pants before crawling into Niou's curtained bed. He reaches for Niou's pillow, closing his eyes and drifting off until Niou sits cross-legged next to his chest. Niou reaches down and takes Marui's hand.

"What are you doing?" Marui asks.

"Letting out some of your magic," Niou says. "Your body is still adjusting to the tattoos. It will help the process along. Can I?"

"Always."

Niou closes his eyes and exhales deeply. Orbs of purple and magenta light begin to appear all around them, floating up and down, moving like they're alive. Marui reaches out and touches a ball with wisps of silver and white. His body is zapped by energy, by his own magic.

Marui looks up to see Niou, who has opened his eyes and is staring at Marui's magic with a soft smile. Marui adjusts his hand in Niou's, threading their fingers together.

"Niou," Marui says. "I need to thank you for this. For all of this."

"It's your magic," Niou replies. "I'm just helping you along your way."

More orbs begin to appear and grow in size. Marui squeezes Niou's hand impossibly tight as his energy leaves him. He rolls towards Niou and falls asleep.

.

Kirihara notices the tattoos before Yukimura. Marui is coming out of the bathroom in his towel and Kirihara is making microwave ramen in the kitchen. Kirihara stares at him and the tattoos are still so new that Marui doesn't understand why he's staring for several moments. The microwave beeps when the timer runs out, but Kirihara is still standing.

"Please tell me those are new and I'm not blind or something," Kirihara says.

"They're new," Marui laughs.

Kirihara walks over and stares at them. "Whoa. What are all of those things? Drunken mistakes?"

"Shut up. I got them by choice."

"They look like Niou's," Kirihara says. Marui gives him a strange look. Kirihara knows about Niou's tattoos? Kirihara adds, "Sometimes I'll come home from school early and he'll be in the kitchen half-naked with his fuck buddy."

"You mean Yagyuu?"

"I don't know his name." Kirihara takes one last look at Marui's tattoos then adds, "They're cool," before going to get his ramen.

.

Niou takes Marui shopping on their days off. They go to out of the way occult stores for cauldrons and crystals, buying maps so he can scry. He stocks up on supplies from Sanada's house and on magic-laced tea at Cauldron. He puts his new purchases into boxes and shelves on a bookcase in his room.

Niou introduces him to the gypsy butcher who gives him pig blood, chicken feet, and oddities that are harder to come by. He finds a store that sells cheap vials and parchment for his potions, and another shop that has tomes and legitimate guidebooks on magic. He gets quills and ink wells at a calligraphy store.

A blond bengal cat begins to hang out near the bakery. Jackal sets out a saucer of milk for it and a box for when it rains. Urayama goes out and buys small packets of cat food to feed it. Tooyama and Sakuno pet its stomach and talk about buying a cat when they move in together in a few weeks. Marui wants to pet it, but doesn't in case Yagyuu doesn't like the smell of other cats.

Marui leaves work early after finishing his cake orders and heads to Cauldron where he is meeting Niou, who is taking him to a shop that sells incense and divination supplies. Marui is a block away from the bakery when he realizes the cat is following him. He thinks nothing of it until the cat follows him into Cauldron.

"No, cat, you can't be in here," Marui says. The cat runs behind the counter where Kikumaru the familiar is working. "Sorry, it just followed me in here," Marui says.

"It's okay," Kikumaru says. "Are you here to see Niou? He's in the back room with Atobe."

Marui has never been into the mysterious back room so he doesn't know what to expect. He only knows that he was not expecting to see a room larger than the front shop filled with colorful bottled potions, stacks of boxes labeled in ruins, and a cage with a phoenix.

Niou is standing next to Atobe, whose pupils are blown to saucers and eyes are surrounded by glimmering scales. They're standing near a row of beehives and a stack of boxes labeled amulets.

_Wait a minute_, Niou thinks.

"With your powers, we wouldn't have to worry about innocent people being killed," Atobe says. "Think about my offer, won't you? I have other business to take care of at the moment."

Atobe heads for the door to the main shop, pausing briefly to look at Marui, then leaves. Niou sighs and runs a hand through his hair.

"What was that about?" Marui asks.

"He wants me to join the reveal movement," Niou says.

"You don't want to?"

"If I did, you and the others would be in danger," Niou says. "Not just Kirihara and Yukimura, but Hiroshi and Sanada and other people I know."

"Oh." Marui can feel Niou's magic flittering around anxiously. He holds up the box he brought from the bakery. "I have cream-puffs."

Niou laughs. "You know me so well."

.

Niou helps Marui make several more potions over the following weeks. Marui spends so much time bent over a smoking cauldron that he's convinced he will forever smell like mandrake root and pig feet. When he isn't making potions, he's working on cake designs for the bakery, spending time with Yukimura and Kirihara, or reading up on a new branch of magic.

So far, he's studied potion making, spell casting, astronomy, and numerology. He's half way through a tome on tarot card reading when he decides to go to Niou's room and read in there. He doesn't bother knocking anymore so he lets himself in.

"Hey, Niou, I'm reading this book and—oh goddess."

Niou is lying on the floor, his head in Yagyuu's lap, his pale skin purple from bruises and red from blood. His cheeks look hollowed and his limbs are limp at his sides. Yagyuu's hands are under his neck and Marui can feel the transfer of magic from him to Niou, but Niou's magic is so weak that it barely registers at all. What he does feel is sickly.

"Help me," Yagyuu says.

Marui hurries to Niou's side, kneeling and cupping Niou's face in his hands. Niou's eyes open and his irises are black. His voice is cracked when he says, "Marui?"

"Yeah. It's me," Marui says weakly. "What happened?"

"He came to my apartment like this," Yagyuu says. "I carried him here. My apartment does not have the protection charms this room does. He's safer here."

"Safer from what?" Marui asks. Yagyuu does not answer. Marui rubs his thumbs in circles against Niou's cheeks. "What can I do?"

"Get the revival potion from his chest."

Marui searches through Niou's chest until he finds a vial of red liquid with the proper label. He presses it into Yagyuu's palm and returns to Niou's side. He watches, helpless, as Yagyuu forces the liquid into Niou's mouth. He has to help Niou swallow. When the liquid goes down, Niou curls onto his side and hacks up blood.

"He needs to go to a hospital," Marui says. "I'll call an ambulance."

"A hospital can't do anything," Yagyuu says. "Someone poisoned him. His magic is rotting."

Niou begins to twist into himself, shaking violently and struggling to breathe. He reaches out, weakly grasping Marui's shirt between his fingers. Marui gently holds onto his wrist.

Marui runs through every plant at Sanada's and its use in potion making. When he comes up with nothing, he switches to every potion he's read about and every spell he's seen in a tome. He switches gears again to the labeled boxes he saw in Cauldron's back room but can't remember seeing anything that would help Niou.

"His magic is degrading too quickly," Yagyuu says. "My magic is stalling the process, but he's dying. The potion will only last a few minutes then the process will continue."

"Will my magic help?" Marui asks. "Magic is life, right? So if I give him some of my life, he'll be okay. He just needs a little."

"I don't know. Familiars give their magic, but it's always compatible. I've never heard of someone else giving a significant amount of magic when its not compatible. If anyone's done it, they've died in the process."

"No," Niou says. His voice is scratchy and his teeth are red with blood. "I won't take your life."

"Too bad. I'm giving it to you. Just shut up and let me help."

Niou coughs, "Fine."

"Are you sure?" Yagyuu says. "You may die."

"He's already dying," Marui says. "You're his familiar. Isn't it your job to keep him safe?"

Yagyuu hesitates. "Alright."

"Okay. How do I do this?"

"Focus on the location of the physical connection. The more contact, the better," Yagyuu says. "He'll hurt himself if you don't hold him down. Putting in as much magic as you're talking about will shock his body."

Marui lets go of Niou's wrist. Niou's hand falls and he grapples for Marui, whining when he can't get ahold of him again.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Marui says as he positions himself on top of Niou. He straddles his thighs, not wanting to hurt his already damaged body more than necessary, and holds his hands in his. Yagyuu presses on Niou's shoulders, his fingers running along Niou's bare neck. Niou coughs blood and chokes.

"Marui," Niou croaks. His eyes open and the black has spread to the whites of his eyes. "Hurry."

"Feel your magic and channel it where your skin meets his," Yagyuu says. "Concentrate your magic and let it flow into him."

Marui closes his eyes and feels the core of his magic in his gut. He imagines it spreading through his body with his blood, pooling at his hands and fingertips. He feels the collection of magenta and purple growing in size, then lets it go. He stops struggling to control it and releases it.

Niou's back nearly snaps in half when he arches up. His nails dig into the back of Marui's hands and Yagyuu pushes him back to the floor.

"Just a bit more," Marui says. He can feel his magic mingling with Niou's rotten gold magic, healing it and restoring its brilliant color.

Then Niou goes still.


End file.
